Useful substances produced by cultivation are utilized in various fields. Such useful substances, for example, include a therapeutic antibody. That therapeutic antibody is obtained by cultivating animal cells and purifying a culture solution of the animal cells.
When animal cells are cultivated, useful substances are secreted extracellularly. Consequently, after removing the animal cells, those useful substances are purified via chromatography. On the other hand, when microorganisms are cultivated, useful substances are secreted intracellularly. In this case, after disrupting the cells and removing solid materials, those useful substances are purified via chromatography.
Generally, a therapeutic antibody, which is an example of useful substances, is purified by using a plurality of types of chromatography through a rough purification step, an intermediate purification step, and a final purification step. Herein, affinity chromatography is used in the rough purification step, and hydrophobic chromatography and ion exchange chromatography or the like are used in the intermediate and final purification steps.
Here, the related art of this technical field is disclosed by Patent Literatures 1-4.